NASA Astronaut David Wolf Leaves Agency

HOUSTON -- NASA astronaut David Wolf has left the agency to return to private industry. Wolf is a veteran of five space shuttle flights and a long-duration mission on the Russian Space Station Mir.

"I had the pleasure of working with Dave for years," said Bob Behnken, chief of the Astronaut Office at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. "His leadership and expertise within our spacewalking community was critical to the success of many shuttle and station missions. We wish him the best in this new phase of his career, and we will miss him greatly."

Wolf earned a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering from Purdue University and a doctor of medicine from Indiana University. He joined NASA in 1983, and was selected to the astronaut corps in 1990. Before flying in space, he served in multiple technical roles supporting Johnson Space Center's Medical Services Division.

In 2011, Wolf was inducted into the Space Foundation's Space Technology Hall of Fame for his work in developing the bioreactor, a device that enables the growth of tissue, cancer tumors and virus cultures outside the body in space and on Earth.

Wolf flew on five separate shuttle flights and spent 128 days aboard Mir during NASA-MIR 6 in 1996. During NASA-MIR 6, he conducted one spacewalk during the mission, using the Russian Orlan spacesuit.

He ends his NASA career after completing seven spacewalks, using both the American and Russian spacesuits, and having logged 47 hours, 5 minutes of extravehicular activity.